Monday, October 12, 2015

In my post last week on hyperoperations, I didn't talk much about the operation under addition, the zero-th operation in the hierarchy, which many refer to as "zeration". There is a surprising amount of disagreement about exactly how zeration should be defined.

The traditional definition of zeration, per Goodstein, is: \(H_0(a, b) = b + 1\). Now when I first saw this, I was surprised and taken aback. All the other operations start with \(a\) as a "base", and then effectively apply some simpler operation \(b\) times, so it seems odd to start with the \(b\) and just add one to it. (If anything my expectation would have been to take \(a+1\), but that doesn't satisfy the regular recursive definition of \(H_n\) when you try to construct addition.)

Here are some points in favor of the standard definition \(b+1\): (1) It does satisfy the recursive formula that repeated applications are equivalent to addition (\(H_1\)). (2) It does looking passingly like counting by 1, i.e., the Peano "successor" operation. (3) It shares the key identity that \(H_n(a, 0) = 1\), for all \(n \ge 3\). (4) Since it is an elementary operation (addition, really), it can be extended from natural numbers to all real and complex numbers in a fashion which is analytic (infinitely differentiable).

But here are some points against the standard definition (1) It is not "really" a binary operator like the rest of the hierarchy, in that it totally ignores the first parameter \(a\). (2) Because of its ignoring \(a\), it's not commutative like the other low-level operations n = 1 or 2 (yet like them it is still associative and distributive, or as I sometimes say, collective of the next higher operation). (3) For the same reason, it has no identity element (no way to recover the value \(a\), unique among the entire hyperoperations hierarchy). (4) It's the only hyperoperation which doesn't need a special base case for when \(b = 0\). (5) I might turn around favorable point #3 above and call it weird and unfavorable, in that it is misaligned in this way with operations n = 1 and 2, and it's the only case of one of the key identities being added at a lower level instead of being lost. See how weird that looks below?

So as a result, a variety of alternative definitions have been put forward. I think my favorite is \(H_0(a, b) = max(a, b) + 1\). Again, this looks a lot like counting; I might possibly explain it to a young student as "count one more than the largest number you've seen before". Points in favor: (1) Repeated applications are again the same as addition. (2) It is truly a binary operation. (3) It is commutative, and thus completes the trifecta of commutativity, association, and distribution/collection being true for all operations \(n < 3\). (4) It does have an identity element, in \(b = 0\). (5) It maintains the pattern of losing more of the high-level identities, and in fact perfects the situation in that none of the five identities hold for this zeration (all "no's" in the modified table above for \(n = 0\)). Points against: (1) It isn't exactly the same as the unary Peano successor function. (2) It's non-differentiable, and therefore cannot be extended to an analytic function over the fields of real or complex numbers.

There are vocal proponents of related possible re-definition: \(H_0(a, b) = max(a, b) + 1\) if a ≠ b, \(a + 2\) if a = b. Advantage here is that it matches some identities in other operations, like \(H_n(a, a) = H_{n+1}(a, 2)\) and \(H_n(2, 2) = 4\), but I'm less impressed by specific magic numbers like that (as compared to having commutativity and the pattern of actually losing more identities). Disadvantage is obviously that the possibility of adding 2 in the \(a+2\) case gets us even further away from the simple Peano successor function.

And then some people want to establish commutativity so badly that they assert this: \(H_0(a, b) = ln(e^a + e^b)\). That does get you commutativity, but at that point we're so far away from simple counting in natural numbers that I don't even want to think about it.

Final thought: While most people interpret the standard definition of zeration, \(H_0(a, b) = b + 1\) as "counting 1 more place from b", it makes more sense to my brain to turn that around and say that we are "counting b places from 1". That is, ignoring the \(a\) parameter, start at the number 1 and apply the successor function repeatedly b times: \(S(S(S(...S(1))))\), with the \(S\) function appearing \(b\) times. This feels more like "basic" Peano counting, it maintains the sense of \(b\) being the number of times some simpler operation is applied, and it avoids defining zeration in terms of the higher operation of addition. And then you also need to stipulate a special base case for \(b = 0\), like all the other hyperoperations, namely \(H_0(a, 0) = 1\).

So maybe the standard definition is the best we can do, and the closest expression of what Peano successor'ing in natural numbers (counting) really indicates. Perhaps we can't really have a "true" binary operator at level \(H_0\), at a point when we haven't even discovered what the number "2" is yet.

P.S. Can we consider defining an operation one level even lower, perhaps \(H_{-1}(a, b) = 1\) which ignores both parameters, just returns the natural number 1, and loses every single one of the regular properties of hyperoperations (including recursivity in the next one up)?

Monday, October 5, 2015

Consider the basic operations: Repeated counting is addition; repeated addition is multiplication; repeated multiplication is exponentiation. Hyperoperations are the idea of generally extending this sequence. This was first proposed as such, in a passing comment, by R. L. Goodstein in an article to the Journal of Symbolic Logic, "Transfinite Ordinals in Recursive Number Theory" (1947):

At this point, there are a lot of different ways of denoting these operations. There's \(H_n\) notation. There's the Knuth up-arrow notation. There's box notation and bracket notation. The Ackerman function means almost the same thing. Conway's chained arrow notation can be used to show them. Some people concisely symbolize the zero-th level operation (under addition) as \(a \circ b\), and the fourth operation (above exponentiation) as \(a \# b\). Wikipedia reiterates Goodstein's original definition like so, for \(H_n (a,b): (\mathbb N_0)^3 \to \mathbb N_0\):

Let's use Goodstein's suggested names for the levels above exponentiation. Repeated exponentiation is tetration; repeated tetration is pentation; repeated pentation is hexation; and so forth. Since I don't see them anywhere else online, below you'll find some partial hyperproduct tables for these next-level operations (and ODS spreadsheet here). Of course, the values get large very fast; you'll see some entries in scientific notation, and then "#NUM!" indicates a place where my spreadsheet could no longer handle the value (that is, something greater than \(1 \times 10^{308}\)).

From this point forward, the hyperoperation tables look passingly similar in this limited view. You have some fixed values in the first two rows and columns; the 2-by-2 result is eternally 4; and everything other than that is so astronomically huge that you can't even usefully write it in scientific notation. Here are some identities suggested above that we can prove pretty easily for all hyperoperations \(n > 3\):

\(H_n(a, 0) = 1\) (by definition)

\(H_n(a, 1) = a\)

\(H_n(0, b) = \) 0 if b odd, 1 if b even

\(H_n(1, b) = 1\)

\(H_n(2, 2) = 4\)

One passingly interesting question is how many of these master identities hold true in the lower operations (n = 1 to 3; addition, multiplication, and exponentiation); in short, each step further down the hierarchy loses more of these identities, as summarized here:

Now, to connect up to my post last week, recall the basic properties of real numbers taken as axiomatic at the start of most algebra and analysis classes. Addition and multiplication (n = 1 and 2) are commutative and associative; but exponents are not, and neither are any of the higher operations.

Finally consider the general case of distribution, what in my algebra classes I summarize as the "General Distribution Rule" (Principle #2 here). Or perhaps based on last week's observation I might suggest it could be better phrased as "collecting terms of the next higher operation", like \(ac + bc = (a+b)c\) and \(a^c \cdot b^c = (a \cdot b)^c\), or in the general hyperoperational form:

\(H_n(H_{n+1}(a, c), H_{n+1}(b, c)) = H_{n+1}(H_n(a, b), c)\)

Well, just like commutativity and associativity, distribution in this general form also holds for n = 1 and 2, but fails for higher operations. Here's the first counterexample, using \(a \uparrow b\) for exponents (\(H_3\)), and \(a \# b\) for tetration (\(H_4\)):

\((2\#2)\uparrow (0\#2) = 4 \uparrow 1 = 4\), but

\((2 \uparrow 0)\#2 = 1 \# 2 = 1\).

Likewise, what I call the "Fundamental Rules of Exponents" (Principle #1 above, or also here) works only for levels \(n \le 3\), and fails to be meaningful at higher levels of hyperoperation.